


Unleash Your Colors

by Stop_Klancing_Around



Series: Daily Shifts [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Birthday Keith (Voltron), M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, shiro has a twin in this au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16384124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stop_Klancing_Around/pseuds/Stop_Klancing_Around
Summary: 'Keith walks into Lance's bedroom to see one last note on at the foot of the bed. He snatches the note from the bed.“Meet me on Dermott Road at 12. Take the hidden way down. Come ALONE.Love, Lance”'That’s strange.’ Keith thought. The address that he was given was to a large abandon street. They had discovered the barren street a month ago while riding a shopping cart home from the supermarket. Let’s just say that Lance and Keith earned a few new scars after crashing into a trash can trying to turn out of the street.On the morning of Keith's birthday, Keith was left with a mask, clothes, and a  series of notes saying to come to an abandoned street at 12 P.M. Against his better judgment, he goes with the said things and didn't regret it.





	Unleash Your Colors

**Author's Note:**

> Its been a while since I updated this AU. I wanted to say a few things about this fic:
> 
> There is probably a lot of inconsistencies from the first few fics. That is because this was planned out for last year but I didn't have the time to write it. With that being said, this is in canon time of 2018. I just hopped around in order to write this.
> 
> Also, thanks again to [Ray](http://www.raythenerdyfangirl.tumblr.com) for being my beta once again.
> 
> Enjoy :)

The sun has set its lazy light once again in the bedroom, waking everything in its path. Including a sleeping male who covers his head with the light blanket, which proves futile when the light pokes through softly. He wishes just for five more minutes under the covers, but the sun slowly increases its intensity through the blanket. After ten minutes of fighting, Keith tosses the blanket away and groans. 

 

While the sun kisses the freckles that adorn his face and skin, Keith looks around and frowns. Normally, Keith would be curled around Lance but the bed was void of his essence. Hippo, however, was curled on top of Lance’s spot. The cat began to stir and stretch out. She trotted up to Keith as he wheezes when Hippo, a very large calico cat, hops up to his stomach.

 

“I think you are getting a bit too big to be hopping on top of me like this, Hippo,” Keith said, but the cat purrs as she nudges her head into his chest. After a few seconds, Keith sighs and scratches the side of her head. He begins to sit up to see something that Hippo was sleeping on. Upon further inspection, a sheet of paper was laid in substitute of Lance. Keith picks up the large piece of paper and recognizes the handwriting. He begins to read:

 

“Good morning Love. I made you breakfast in the kitchen.”

 

'Strange’ Keith thought. It was a simple note yet he was oddly skeptical about it. Lance doesn't have an early class today, nor does he have work because he called out today with Hunk. Now that he is thinking about it, almost everyone has called out today, including himself because Lance insisted that he did. Keith grabs his glasses by the nightstand and puts them on. The room becomes redefined as he's able to see the things he missed without them. Like the large arrow that pointed out of the room.

 

“What's with the arrows?” Keith asks but doesn’t get a response. He looks around the room still void of Lance but to see more arrows pointing out the door. With a few skeptical questions, Keith gets up with Hippo sitting on his neck and follows the arrows out the room. 

 

Keith follows the arrows to the kitchen where another note was sitting on top of a covered plate. Keith picks it up and reads it:

 

“Good Morning and Happy Birthday, my Freckled Kitten, I made you breakfast, your favorite! Plus, without the milk! Anywho, down to business, I know you have that fat ass cat on your neck as of now and I advise you to take her off. You’ll thank me later. Plus, I’m sorry that I’m not there at the moment, I’m planning something as of late. 

Love, Lance”

 

'She’s not fat’ he thought as he removes the cat from his neck. He does, however, find great relief in his neck. Keith does see the stack of strawberry shortcake waffles on the counter. What was different from the regular was that everything was separated and organized. The strawberries were sliced and placed in one corner, an apple was cut and peeled in another corner and the syrup was in a tiny shot cup. 

 

'He remembered’ Keith thought. He begins to sit down and eat while taking things one by one. He also gives Hippo a few of his apple slices. He takes his time to eat as well, he was hoping that Lance would pop up at any moment while he's chewing on his strawberry (he doesn't show up). When he finishes, he places the plate in the sink and walks over to Hippo. 

 

Keith does makes a quick thought of today's date and walks to the calendar by the fridge. Up close the calendar was marked up with a series of blue and red X's on days that flew past. It just so happens that the 23rd was circled in purple. Today was the 23rd of October. Keith groans to that. Of course, he'd forget his own birthday. What makes it worse is that he was turning 20, a big number. 

 

All Keith wanted to do was to watch movies and curl up with Lance and call it a day. A soft celebration is what Thace calls it. Now that he thinks of it, Thace or Ulaz didn't call him today, nor Kolivan and the Marmora group. It felt odd, they would normally call a minute before midnight to horribly sing happy birthday to him but his phone remained silent. Keith had a faint glimpse of hope that at least his mom would call or text him, but gotten radio silence from his phone. At this point, it was expected. He didn’t get anything from her for the past several years. He had come to terms a few years ago that she will not come and will at least come back to them in a casket. 

 

“Enough of that, there’s no use on thinking like that.” He said aloud. Hippo began to soothe his troubles away by purring and stretching on his arm. Keith appreciates the gesture. “Thanks, Hippo. Now let's get you something to eat.” 

 

Keith gets out cat food and pours it in her bowl and pours water in another bowl for her while going in the refrigerator for the pack of roasted beef when he sees a post-it on top of the lid. The words “DO NOT FEED HIPPO THIS” was scribbled messily in blue ink. He takes two slices and places them on top of Hippo’s bowl. 

 

“What he doesn't know wouldn't kill him,” Keith told Hippo in a hushed voice. There was a silent agreement with both of them before Hippo begins to attack the cold cuts in front of her. 

 

Keith looks back at the letter to see if there was a hint of anything of what Lance was planning but gets a P.S. message instead.

 

“P.S. Please trust me when I say that I’m not doing anything illegal”

 

“Okay, what are you doing?” All Keith gets as a response is Hippo’s happy munching on her food.

 

When Keith deems the apartment safe to leave Hippo alone, he heads to the bathroom to take a shower. He stops by the bedroom to see if he had any clothes in the closet. He realizes a bit late when he’s in front of the closet that he didn’t have anything here. 

 

’Crap’ Keith thought. He didn’t think that he would stay the night with Lance. By the time they stopped goofing around and actually studied and did homework last night, it was dark outside. Keith didn’t want Shiro to come to pick him up and Lance insisted that he should stay the night like he normally does. Not that Keith was complaining or anything. He didn’t want to walk in the dark alone anyway.

 

Keith’s doesn’t have any of his stuff here and he is heavily considering moving in with Lance. Its convenient for the both of them and Keith wouldn't have to run out of the apartment with Lance's clothes. Not that the both of them was complaining. Keith heads off to take a shower and finishes a few minutes later. Keith looks down at the floor to see another note that was slid from under the door. He would've asked what the hell, but it's been established multiple times that Lance was not in his apartment at the moment. At this point, Keith just welcomes the note as he reads.

 

“Hey, you may be wondering where I am as of late. That my freckled love is a surprise. If anything, I know that you don’t have anything to change it. That is all on the foot of the bed where you sleep!”

 

Keith’s head jerks up as he hears a click of the main entrance close. With just the towel tied tightly around his waist, he bolts out of the bathroom and out the apartment to see nobody outside. Keith could hear the faint footsteps slapping the floor as quickly as possible. He was tempted to keep going and follow whoever left the house but the fact that he was almost dry and the towel that was becoming loose by the second was telling him else wise. He walks grudgingly inside and locks the door. Keith gets the feeling that it was someone he knows beyond the years because Hippo was still eating her food and had not once reacted. 

 

Keith walks into Lance's bedroom to see one last note on at the foot of the bed. He snatches the note from the bed. 

 

“Meet me on Dermott Road at 12. Take the hidden way down. Come ALONE.  

Love, Lance”

 

'That’s strange.’ Keith thought. The address that he was given was to a large abandon street. They had discovered the barren street a month ago while riding a shopping cart home from the supermarket. Let’s just say that Lance and Keith earned a few new scars after crashing into a trash can trying to turn out of the street.

 

He notices the other items on the bed and inspects them. There was a white mask that had the words ‘Mi Amor’ written in black cursive and white clothing. This is the complete opposite of Keith’s dark/muted colored aesthetic. Even the sneakers and fingerless gloves that were sitting on top of the clothes were white. There was a new pair of glasses that sat on top of another note. He takes the glasses and reads the note. The handwriting is very different, it was more of a harmonious swirl to it that was legible. It was better than Lance's handwriting. He begins to read it.

 

“Good morning Keith, here is a birthday gift that you'll need later. This has your current prescription.

Thace”

 

“How did you...” The silence sat once again heavily. Keith holds the glasses the inspect the gold rims on a slightly tinted lens. Keith puts on the glasses to see if Thace was wrong about the prescription (he was right) and sets them down. He stares at the items with confusion. At this point, he’d rather get at least some answers to his questions, not more questions. Keith is getting frustrated at this point. He might as well get this over with. At least he will get some answers.

 

He looks at his phone to see that it's 11:45. It takes at least five to ten minutes to get to where Lance wants Keith to meet up. Keith gets dressed and slips his mask, and phone in his pockets while putting on his new glasses. He walks to the door and checks on Hippo, who was still eating. She was a slow eater and he doesn't blame the cat for because he was a slow eater as well. 

 

“I'll be back Hippo, behave yourself,” Keith said. He had gotten a small hiss in return. He walks out en route to the location on the last note.

 

It takes him at least four minutes to get there because he’s on a mission. The moment he sees Lance, he is going to get some type of answer. He notices that the streets were empty. There was no car, no people, no traffic. It was kinda eerie for a day without a single cloud in the sky. It wasn't warm but it wasn't cold either. It was one of those days that you could wear a sweater and not be questioned on. Like he was wearing as of late.

 

He walks down the path to see a note, but in a new handwriting. This was more chicken scratch than Lance's handwriting. He came to the conclusion that this was Hunk's handwriting.

 

“Great you’re here, follow these arrows to your destination”

 

‘But the only way to go is straightforward’ Keith thought. The path was a long one down. Nevertheless, he follows the arrow to another one with another note. This time it was Pidge's handwriting.

 

“You’re halfway there, here is a tip: You should be wearing your mask and glasses as of now. You will thank me later. Plus, there is a spare behind if ya didn’t take yours.”

 

Keith looks behind himself to see that there was a replica of both the glasses and mask that he has as of late on a stool. With curiosity, he tries on the glasses on the stool to see if it has his prescription (it doesn't.) He wears his mask from home and continues to follow the arrow to another note. Allura's handwriting was neatly written on the sheet of paper.

 

“So you’ve gotten to this point of the road. Take a handful of color powder that is to the left of you and use both of your hands, you are going to need it.”

 

Keith looks down to see the two large buckets of powder paint. One was purple and the other was red. He picks both colors up with both hands. The tips of his sleeves of the sweater had picked up the color as well, but it was barely noticeable. Keith follows the arrow for the last time to see the last note. The annoyingly scribbled mess that he's been seeing the whole morning was Lance's.

 

“The moment you get there, pick a side by throwing a hand up in the air. The moment you throw it, we can begin. Good luck, Freckles.” 

 

Keith starts to see the opening and makes a break for it. ‘Finally’ he thought ‘I’ll get to figure out what is going on’ He runs and slides to a stop to see that there were two groups of people; one side is behind Shiro and another one behind Lance. They're all wearing an all-white outfit with different decorated masks. The only difference is that Lance was wearing an all-white mask with kanji written over in black. Keith recognized part of it, but couldn't make out what it read. As of late, Shiro and Lance in the middle of a heated argument. From the looks of it, neither one of them is backing down. There was so much confusion in Keith's face but nevertheless, it starts to click. The realization hits him as Keith gets closer to hear what's going on.

 

“You think you can take me on?” That was Shiro getting into Lance's face. There was a bit of frustration thrown in his voice. Lance looks up at him with the same energy.

 

“I sure as hell can” Lance gets in Shiro’s face as well. Lance pulls down his mask to give Shiro the edge he has in his voice. Shiro sneers at that.

 

“I'll like to see you try.” There was a lot of tension in their stance, from the looks of things, they were about to duke it out if Keith didn't do anything to at least defuse the situation. As Shiro begins to bulk up, Keith jumps in and pulls down his mask. He puts himself between them and looks at them.

 

“What's going on?” Keith said. Lance looks at him, gives out a large sigh of relief and points towards Shiro.

 

“Oh, FINALLY, you're here, can you pick who's right? Shiro is saying that I can't beat him in this because he's older.” Lance said. Shiro rolls his eyes.

 

“That is true, you can't beat me,” Shiro said.

 

“Beat you in what exactly?”

 

“That doesn't matter at the moment, as for right now choose who is right.” 

 

Now it really clicks with Keith. Red was for Lance while purple was for Shiro. Keith begins to laugh at the hilarity. It wasn't hysterical, but it was an enough to toss a few questionable looks at him. Hid laughter does die down after a few minutes and  begins to think. He looks at them again while backing two steps away after making his decision. He looks at Shiro with a sinister smile.

 

“You know, I always wanted to see you in red.” Keith throws his right hand and all of that red powder paint that he was hiding had shown its true colors all over Shiro. The red powder coats Shiro softly while giving him a light red hue all over his Stark white clothes. Even his hair caught the color. Everyone was in shock, even Shiro’s twin, Kuron, whose eyes were popping out. Shiro looks all over himself and then at Keith to see if this really happened. He shoots Keith the ‘I trusted you’ look before speaking up.

 

“You are SO on Kogane.” Before Shiro could get any closer, a voice screams out.

 

“WOW, THE BETRAYAL, THE AGONY, THE ANGST,” Matt runs up to get in between Shiro and Keith. He flails his hand to his head. “YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND, BETRAYED YOU.” Matt begins to sink to the ground in such a slow, dramatic way that even Lance rolls his eyes and groans. Lance knows that he is dramatic but he couldn't compete with Matt. SUCH PLOT TWIST. WHAT WOULD YOU-.” Matt was throwing dramatic hand gestures towards them and Shiro rakes his now red hair tiredly.

 

“Matt for the love of God, please shut up”. Shiro said.

 

“That's only fair” Matt gets up and shrugs, he goes back to the side where behind Shiro. There were a few giggles here and there.

 

“When are we going to start?” Kuro speaks up after some giggles. He idly picks at his smiling teeth mask. “Keith technically picked a side.” 

 

“We are starting right now actually” Lance pull up his mask and does the same for Keith. He also makes sure that his glasses are on correctly. Everyone else was doing the same thing while getting into position.

 

“Starting what” Keith speaks up, but his voice was semi-blocked by the mask. Lance looks at him and smiles, rather, his eyes smiles for his lips and winks. Like his eyes are telling him 'you'll see in a second’

 

“ALRIGHT, LET'S GOOOOO” Lance takes Keith hand and runs towards the group of people at Shiro's group. The mass parted like the plague as they throw their various shades of reds and blues at them. Lance's group was after them as well while throwing their colors at Shiro's group.

 

It was war and madness after that. There was so much color in the air that for a split second, Keith's eyes couldn't comprehend such vibrancy. Even if everyone was throwing it at anything. What Lance didn't realize that he was taking Keith through a strong experience through color. So strong that it sparked something in Keith. All Lance was doing was smiling at Keith as he takes him through the crowd. After some time, Lance lets go of Keith's hand to run in another direction. 

 

Keith was about to run after him when he sees the twins side by side walking towards him. They also have something in their hands.

 

“Hey, Keith” Kuro and Shiro said in a sing-song voice. Keith flinches. “You know why we are here?”

 

“Guys, do you know how disconcerting that is?”

 

“Yeah, but we do it to annoy you anyway” Keith shivers to that. 

 

“Ugh, it's creepy.”

 

“Okay but besides that. We wanted to repay you for earlier.” Before Keith could really get into position to at least block his face, Thing 1 and Thing 2 throws their powder at him. Yellow and orange coats Keith with a softness that even his hair gets a bit of the action. His glasses get a bit of a coating but it wasn't enough to block his line of vision.

 

“Happy Birthday Keith,” Shiro said with a smile. As Keith was about to retaliate with words that aren't English, he remembers the other hand and smiles mischievously. The twins give him a curious look.

 

“Since we are here to give back, I might as well return the favor” with the powder that he had left, Keith throws it at them. The purple powder was thrown with such accuracy that it shocked the both of them. 

 

“Oh COME ON,” Kuro said, he gives a look at Shiro to see the same thing on him. A purple splash of color in the front with other colors that were sitting closely behind. By the time they came to their wits about getting Keith back, he had disappeared through the color cloud. 

 

While Keith was looking for more powdered paint, Pidge and Hunk come in running with green and yellow respectively at Allura and Matt. They had thrown their colors together to get a mushroom of mixed colors. All Keith could do was watch as the four of them laugh about all of the other colors that was tossed their way. Especially since Allura’s hair was becoming more of a rainbow than the silvery locks that he knew her for. The four of them look up to Keith and gasps. Before Keith can question it, he becomes bathed in five different colors at the same time. Keith could hear the new set of crackling that Pidge and Matt had begun and the snort that Hunk tried to hide but failed badly. Keith turns around to see Koilvan and his entire team holding a rather large bucket of now empty powdered paint.

 

“Kolivan? What are you doing here?” Keith looks up and questioned but he gets picked up and hug from him on the spot. Keith sees Thace, Ulaz, Antok, and the rest of the Marmora team giving him the largest group hug. They were all covered in a layer of mostly purple and blue.

 

“What do you mean ‘what are you doing here?’ We’re here to celebrate with you.” Kolivan said. He felt the hug getting tighter with everyone who decided to join in. He didn’t mind it at all.

 

“We meant to call you before to wish to a happy birthday but all of us was in the air at the time,” Thace said. He and Ulaz gave a kiss to Keith’s cheeks. Keith would’ve said something about the affections that he was getting but he was too busy trying not to be taken over by his emotions.

 

“How come ALL of you are here then?” Keith asked.

 

“Keith, your dads and I are retired CIA agents, I think this was enough to get all of us to come over to celebrate with you. Happy birthday again Keith” Kolivan said as he ruffs up Keith’s hair. A purple cloud came out of it.

 

“We called out of work today to help you celebrate this. There was no way we were going to miss this” Allura said, but it felt like she spoke for almost everyone here. Almost everyone. He looks at Pidge to see what was their excuse.

 

“Really Keith? You think I'd miss my best friend’s 'not party’ color party? I think the fuck not” They all laugh at that as they unloosen themselves from the group hug. Once they all calmed down, Keith starts up again.

 

“Wait, my only question is who planned all of this?” Keith asked as he gestures his orange hand towards all the clouds of colors. There were still people throwing their colors. He had a good feeling as to who was behind all of this planning.

 

“Your boyfriend Lance of course.” Keith knew it. He gives out a sigh to let Kolivan continue. “He was the one who pitched the idea to us.” Keith gives Kolivan a look and then proceeded to give Thace and Ulaz the look too.

 

“It was Thace that told Kolivan,” Ulaz said as he turned away. The scandalous look that Thace gave Ulaz was phenomenal to the T. Even the entire team was laughing at them.

 

“He knows how you are with other people so it was a closed event with people you know. The only thing we did was close the street off for a couple of hours. Lance did the rest.”  Kolivan picks up from where he left off. Speaking of Lance, where was he?

 

Keith looks up from the group to see Lance in all of his glory. He was covered in color but not as colorful as Keith was. He could hear Pidge mumbling 'a true gay icon’ from the corner of his mind. He still had the kanji mask on and Keith still had his on. He was about to head his way over when he stopped to look at Kolivan. Just to make sure he was in the clear. Kolivan nods with the rest of them.

 

“Go to him, Keith.” And go he went. He started off with a light jog before he breaks into a full sprint to Lance. By the time he catches up to Lance, be turns around to see who was stomping. He barely had enough time to ready himself when Keith slams into him with a bone-crushing hug.

 

“Woah, Woah, Woah. What's gotten into you.” Keith pulls down both his and Lance's mask before smashing into Lance's soft lips. Lance was surprised by it, but nothing was expected after today. He melted into the kiss as he held onto Keith a little tighter. Purple, blue, and red clouds of paint had been thrown on them, just as they let go of each other. They look at the culprit with such disappointment. 

 

“What, I thought you guys needed it,” Matt said as he shrugged. Matt runs in a different direction within the color clouds.

 

The both of them laugh again as they began to shake some of the loose powder off of each other. Lance uses his hands to wipe the color off of Keith's face, just to reveal the freckles that adorn his face. He also removes a bit of the color off of Keith's glasses, just in case he couldn't see. Their masked was put back on just in case someone wanted to dust them again.

 

Lance smiles through his mask. Keith finally looks up to see Lance's eyes smiling at him. The sun kisses his skin all over, especially with all of the colors that was spread over his skin and clothes. He notices the kanji on the mask that Lance was wearing once again. He uses one of his hands to wipe a bit of the powder off his mask. The kanji was written as ‘私の愛’ 

 

“My Love.” Keith reads aloud. Lance releases a small chuckle.

 

“My Love” Lance reads back.

 

“That was clever, I'm not gonna to lie” 

 

“I know”

 

“But you do realize that we don't have a way to express “my love” in Japanese. So what you said is based on the feeling.” Lance rolls his eyes to that.

 

“Way to kill a mood Keith” The both of them were smiling at this point. There was a lot of that throughout the day but this felt different. More importantly, it felt like a secret that should have been written down in a journal for safekeeping and should only be viewed as a cherished memory. They hold on to each other for a while. Watching the clouds of green and orange flow pass them with a lazy puff. Keith starts up after some time passes by. 

 

“This made me think of something,” Keith said. Lance looks at him with a funny look.

 

You're thinking? That's not a good combination” Lance said. Keith pinches him.

 

“Asshole” Lance briefly mumbles out 'ow’ before snorting  “I have been thinking about taking upon art again” That makes Lance sober up and really look at Keith again. The seriousness in Lance's eyes made Keith look up to him as well.

 

“As a major? I thought you hated it?”

 

“I hated the teachers and lost the passion because of it.”

 

“So what brought it back? The spark I mean”

 

“You.” Lance gave a confused look. Keith continues. “It was you and your extraness that made me realize what I was missing.”

 

“Well I'm glad that I helped you with that”

 

“Thank you” Keith kisses Lance again. This kiss was a lot softer and quicker than the first one. After some time passes by Keith picks up on another conversation. This time it was kept short.

 

“I'm glad I followed all of those notes you left to here.” Keith takes Lance's hand and guides him through the clouds of colors. Lance allows him to do so.

 

“I'm glad you did. I would’ve been disappointed if you didn't come” Lance said. That was how they spent Keith's birthday, enveloped in vibrant clouds of colors.

**Author's Note:**

> So what did you think? 
> 
> Do leave a comment and kudos to let me know how you feel or yell at me in my inbox on Tumblr.
> 
> Until next time [Tumblr](http://www.stop-klancing-around.tumblr.com)


End file.
